DAVE MCNEELY: Can Texans continue to afford Rick Perry?

SAN ANGELO, Texas - Texas taxpayers who can count may be starting to wonder how much of Gov. Rick Perry they can afford.

In the name of good, businesslike government, Perry says he’s planning to spurn the opportunity for Texas to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, the new federal Affordable Care Act. In Texas, going along with the act would add about 1 million Texans to the medical insurance rolls.

Perry says accepting it might make people feel dependent, getting things from the government.

So apparently to protect the right of 1 million Texans to remain without health insurance, Perry says he’ll turn down a federal deal that would insure those people for three years — with the feds picking up the entire tab.

After that initial period, for the next several years, the feds would pay 90 percent of the cost if the state will put up 10 percent.

This isn’t chump change. For a cost of about $15 billion over 10 years, Texas would draw down about $100 billion in federal money.

And what happens if we don’t take the deal? Well, Texans will continue to pay their federal taxes. The money that otherwise would have been sent to Texas under the Obamacare Medicaid expansion deal will instead be sent to other states.

In other words, Texans will pay taxes to support Medicaid expansion in other states, but not in Texas.

That factor was a big one in some other Republican governors who opposed Obamacare deciding to have their states accept the Medicaid deal.

The latest is Republican Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, a former hospital executive who had been one of the principal and most vehement opponents of Obamacare.

On Feb. 20, Scott shocked some of his top supporters. He said he now favors taking the deal, at least the part that has the feds paying 100 percent of the tab.

“While the federal government is committed to paying 100 percent of the cost, I cannot in good conscience deny Floridians that needed access to health care,” Scott told reporters at a news conference.

“We will support a three-year expansion of the Medicaid program under the new health care law as long as the federal government meets their commitment to pay 100 percent of the cost during that time,” Scott said.

While saying there were “no perfect options” in what to do about Medicaid expansion, Scott said in the short term, accepting it made absolute sense.

Of course, Scott’s change of heart still has to clear the Florida Legislature. Many of its members had echoed Scott’s opposition to the Medicaid expansion. They might find it harder to copy his turnaround.

Two days after Scott’s announcement, Perry, speaking to the Texas State Society in Washington, said Texas would continue to turn down the Medicaid expansion deal.

“We are not going to be expanding Medicaid in Texas,” Perry said, as protesters chanted outside. “I’m not going to send my state on a path that is sure to bankrupt the state.”

If people in charge of government were indeed following the advice of Perry and several other politicians to run it more like a business, do you think they’d be turning down a program that covers Medicaid costs for three years at no cost to Texans? And after that for years at a 9 to 1 match?

Proponents of the expansion point out that in addition to the benefits to those who would get insurance, it will a huge generator of jobs in the medical field, and other associated businesses.

Some may think the Medicaid expansion turndown is still Perry posturing to Republican primary voters in other states for another try at the presidential nomination in 2016.

Maybe. And if he does, Texans may be willing to eat the millions of dollars in tax money they likely will spend for Perry’s security detail while he’s out courting GOP primary voters and potential political donors in other states.

While Perry was running for president last time, federal disclosure requirements turned up that he’s already collecting $92,000 a year in retirement pay, while still getting $150,000 gross salary as governor.

That, plus close to $100 billion in Medicaid money that Texans will pay for, but will go to other states, might make them think it would be cheaper if Perry would just go ahead and retire.